Article 4712 of comp.graphics.rendering.renderman:
From: mercier@cinenet.net (Bob Mercier)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.rendering.renderman,comp.graphics.apps.alias
Subject: Re: How much costs ATOR
Followup-To: comp.graphics.rendering.renderman,comp.graphics.apps.alias
Date: 28 Aug 1997 22:57:01 GMT
Organization: Cinenet Communications,Internet Access,Los Angeles;310-301-4500
Lines: 34
Message-ID: <5u4vnt$hp8$1@marina.cinenet.net>
References:
NNTP-Posting-Host: hollywood.cinenet.net
X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950824BETA PL0]
Path: news.lava.net!coconut-wireless!news.flex.com!www.nntp.primenet.com!globalcenter1!news.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!feta.direct.ca!newsfeed.direct.ca!tor-nx1.netcom.ca!news.cinenet.net!not-for-mail
Xref: news.lava.net comp.graphics.rendering.renderman:4712 comp.graphics.apps.alias:6290
Montgomery Lam (forest@pantai.pc.my) wrote:
:
: Good Luck getting a quote from Pixar. I have read in CGW that it cost
: around $9K for ATOR and Renderman 3.6. I have faxed Pixar countless of
: times and have never heard a reply. Could you inform me if you do get
: through to them.
:
: Mo
I was able to write a reasonable clone of ATOR in about 3 weeks
using the OpenModel libraries, a really terrific API for Alias.
There's also an AliasToRenderman application that ships with
Alias, depending (greatly) on your needs it may work for you.
Things to look out for if you want to attempt your own Alias
wire file converter:
- Alias is right handed, Renderman is (a little) easier
left handed, you'll probably want to switch to left
handed.
- Don't forget the film back when translating the camera
transforms.
- CVs in Alias Nurbs patches have the weights premultiplied,
you'll need to divide them out for Renderman.
- If you want texturing to work in a natural way you'll
need to reparameterize the knots, Renderman likes 0..1
Bob
(formerly of Boss Films)
mercier@cinenet.net